The emotional attachment people place on data, and the complexity and inconvenience of replacing bank and credit cards make them the most upsetting things for people to lose.

Data is more important than devices

Losing anything is an upsetting experience, but the research shows that people are most upset when they lose things that are difficult or impossible to replace.

Overall, respondents were most frustrated by the loss of bank and credit cards, which means one has to live without ready access to money until they can be replaced. And it puts people through the hassle of cancelling the cards and getting back anything fraudulently spent on them.

After credit cards, data storage devices in the form of laptops and smartphones take the second and third places respectively. And the statistics show that it’s not the devices themselves that people are sad about losing but the data that is stored on them.

Fifty-seven percent of people who had lost a device of this type stated that they were more upset about losing their data than they were about the gadget. With phones and laptops packed with pictures, documents and messages that are often irreplaceable, it’s no surprise that this is the case. When it comes to work devices, clearly the business information on the device is likely to be the primary concern when a laptop goes missing.

With younger people making their phones and laptops more central to their lives, this age group was more upset about losing them than their older counterparts. The prevalence of sadness at the loss of credit cards was driven by older respondents, where 25 percent of people 55 and older put it at the top of their list, compared to just 11 percent of 18 to 24 year olds.

Conversely, 27 percent of 18 to 24 year olds rated laptops as the item they’d be most upset about losing, compared to 10 percent of those over 55. A full 23 percent of 18 to 24 year olds placed their smartphone at the top of the list compared to just 5 percent of those over 55.